Baseball and surfing in 2020 Olympics

The International Olympic Committee Executive Board is in favor of including baseball and surfing, two sports at which Dominicans excel, in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. In addition to surfing, skateboarding is also being included in an attempt to attract a younger audience. Baseball and karate are also very popular with Japanese audiences and their inclusion is aimed at motivating strong local support for the Games.

The IOC now needs to give the final approval for skateboarding, surfing, sports climbing and karate plus the joint baseball/softball bid when meeting in Rio de Janeiro Olympics in August 2016.

The inclusion of the new sports would add 18 events and 474 athletes to the Olympic program in Tokyo, without impacting existing sports.